In December 2014 we visited Toruń. The weekend getaway was tied to participation in the Santa half-marathon. We decided to combine it with a kids’ trip.
We arrived in Toruń on Saturday, around noon. Toruń is the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, and thus our trip was partly focused on astronomy, on the other hand, Torun is the capital of gingerbread – we wanted to see how they were made. The trip started with a visit to the Planetarium, where we watched a kids’ movie about Rudolph’s reindeer adventures. There, in a fun way, children watched a story about the stars and planets. It was projected on a semicircular ceiling. Great experience. To avoid waiting in the ticket line, we remembered to buy tickets online before the trip.
Next we headed towards the Old Market Square in Torun, on the way stopping at the monument of Nicolaus Copernicus. In winter it gets dark quickly. It was really cold outside, so we limited our walking time to a minimum. We walked through the market, we saw the Leaning Tower and the house of Nicolaus Copernicus.
There is a museum in the house where Copernicus grew up. We were surprised that in this museum there were more staff than visitors. Every visitor was accompanied by a staff member who made sure we didn’t touch anything and didn’t spoil anything. Each room we entered, a staff member turned on the lights, and after leaving the room they turned the lights off. Strange phenomenon. And the effect of having such a “bodyguard” was that instead of exploring curiously, we walked through the place quickly. Better not mention the staff’s attitude toward children.
Next stop was a visit to the Museum of the Living Gingerbread. Unfortunately we were not able to enter it this day because all tickets were sold and there was no possibility to book a visit online. But we didn’t give up — we would visit this place the next day. Then we drove to the sports hall to pick up a starter pack for the next day’s race and then we went to the hostel. And surprise surprise … we had accommodation in the bunker!
Overnight in the bunker, more specifically in the Fortress of Torun – at Żółkiewski’s Fort IV, which was adapted to be a hostel. A very interesting initiative, which repurposed a large old military building for tourist purposes. The hostel has friendly rooms located in places where many years ago there were barracks for soldiers. The atmosphere was amazing. The hostel staff invited us for an evening tour by torchlight. We had to be part of it!
The tour began. We acted as recruits. We had a short introduction about the place and our role. We pretended that we went back in time. The guide was dressed in the costume of a soldier from the heyday of the fortress and told us in a very interesting way about what happened at the fort, its history and hostilities around Torun. During the walk we were crossing not only the interior of the fort, but also went out watching the moat embankment at the top. The guided tour of the fort was like a trip into the past, so it took the form of a story in which they would often hint at things that would happen in the next few years, but we as soldiers couldn’t know about it (because it was our future) – only narrators know that. A very cheerful form of storytelling. It was a great history lesson not only for us but also for children.
On Sunday morning, Philip ran a half-marathon, and in the meantime, the rest of the family met with a friend in the Old Town. After the race we met up and went to the Living Museum of Gingerbread. We liked this place a lot. First, in a rather unique way they conducted classes about where gingerbread comes from, what the ingredients are, and how it was produced.
There was no way to avoid joining and getting involved in the creative process of making pastries. Whenever someone showed a little boredom, they were immediately selected to proceed with the next step of the baking process. After a brief introduction, everyone had the opportunity to prepare their own gingerbread in one of the prepared molds. In the end, the gingerbread was a souvenir of the visit and was not edible. The edible ones were available to buy in a special shop. We bought several types of gingerbread.
After our visit to the Gingerbread Museum, we went to a small pizzeria in Old Town, which served delicious little homemade pizzas. The children loved them so we had to order more.